Resolution and Revolution

Published:Volna, No. 16, May 13, 1906. Signed, —.

      Published according to theVolnatext.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1965,

      Moscow,Volume 10,

      pages418-420.Translated:Transcription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive

      (2004).You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

Theleading article in yesterday’sNasha Zhizn, and in today’sRech, Duma, Nasha Zhizn, StranaandSlovo—thewhole
bourgeois press without exception—is storming against the Left
Social-Democrats. What has happened? Where is that “victor’s” pride
which until recently enabled the Cadets scornfully to brush aside the
“boycotters”? The hey day of Cadet hegemony—when those gentlemen
taught the proletariat genuine statesmanship and expressed sympathy for its
errors—is a thing of the past. What has happened?

Revolutionismis being reborn, answers Mr. Struve in theDumaleading
article on May Ii. He is right. Faith in the Duma is dwindling hourly. The
notion of how freedom for the people is won becomes clearer as the true face is
revealed of the party which, prattling in the name of that freedom, contrived
during the elections to take into account both the fact that the people were
somewhat tired and the Witte-Durnovo policy which shut the election arena to the
true representatives of the true interests of the people. The inevitability of
new forms of struggle is strikingly emphasised by the activity of an
organisation whose counter revolutionary nature has become obvious. Yes, the
bourgeoisie imagined during the elections that the revolution was at an end and
the sweet moment had come when the bourgeoisie could turn to its own benefit the
fruits of the struggle of the workers and peasants. But it had misjudged. It had
mistaken a temporary lull for the final exhaustion of the revolution, for its
end. It had only just settled more comfort ably into the Duma chairs and begun
nicely and politely to discuss with the old regime the terms of an amicable deal
at the expense of the workers and peasants. And then, allof a sudden, it turned out that the workers and peasants were prepared to
interfere in the game and upset the deal.

Thepopular meeting in the Panina Palace seemed particularly outrageous to the
Cadet gentlemen. The Social- Democrats’ speeches at the meeting stirred up that
putrid swamp. “Have a heart,” cry the Cadet gentlemen, “you are
helping the government with your criticism of our party.” It is a familiar
argument. Whenever the Social-Democrats step forward to explain to the
proletariat and the people as a whole the real meaning of the events that are
taking place, to dispel the fog which the bourgeois politicians are spreading
over the workers, to warn the workers against the bourgeois traders of people’s
freedom, and to show the workers their true place in the revolution, the liberal
gentlemen cry that this weakens the revolution. Whenever the Social-Democrats
say that it does not befit the workers to march under bourgeois banners and that
they have a banner of their own, the banner of Social-Democracy, the liberals
begin to yell that this renders a service to the government. That is not
true. The strength of the revolution lies in the growing class-consciousness of
the proletariat, in the growing political consciousness of the peasantry. A
Social-Democrat who criticises Cadet policy promotes that consciousness and
strengthens the revolution. A Cadet who fools the people by his preachings
befogs that consciousness and robs the revolution of its strength. To tell the
Cadets that we do not trust them because they do not state the demands of the
people fully and emphatically enough, and because they prefer bargaining with
the government to fighting against it, does not mean forgetting the government
on account of the Cadets.

Itmeans showing the people the road to the real struggle and real victory. When
the proletarian and peasant masses gain a clear idea of this road, the Cadets
will have no one to bargain with, for the old regime will be doomed to be
scrapped.

“Youare driving the proletariat to open action,” cry the Cadets. Wait a
moment, gentlemen! It is not for you to talk of action, not for you, who have
built up your political career on the blood of workers and peasants, to mouth
Judas’ discourses about “useless sacrifice”.

Atthe same meeting, perfectly correct words were spoken fully expressing the
      conviction of all Social-Democrats that there is no need to urge the
      proletariat on. InVolnaanyone could have read that events
    should not be

			       forced.[1]But it is one thing to force events and another to
    force the conditions in which the next act of the great drama is to be
    played. What we are calling on the proletariat and the peasantry to do is
    to prepare for that moment, which, after all, does not depend on us alone
    but, among other things, on the extent to which the Cadet gentlemen will
    betray the cause of freedom. Our task is to explain the conditions for the
    struggle, point to its possible forms, show the proletariat its place in
    the coming struggle, and work to organise its forces and to promote its
    class-consciousness. And at present this means, among other things,
    indefatigably unmasking the Cadets and warning against the Cadet
    Party. That is what
    we are doing and will continue to do. When the Cadets get agitated and fly
    into a passion over this, it is a sign that we are not doing our job
    badly. And when in this connection the Cadets whine pitifully about the
    revolution being weakened, it is a sign that they already have a clear
    foreboding that the real revolution, the revolution of the workers and
    peasants, is about to overwhelm the Cadet Duma. The Cadets fear that the
    revolution may go beyond the limit which the bourgeoisie has set for its own
    convenience. The working class and the peasantry must not forget that their
    interests go beyond these limits and that their task is to carry the
    revolution through to the end.

Andthat is what was said in the resolution of the popular meeting, a resolution
which made the Cadet Protopopov sigh wistfully as he thought of local police
inspectors. You must write more cautiously, gentlemen of the Cadet Party.

[1]Seep. 390 of this volume.—Ed.